PM calls for a new 'strategic thrust' to BIMSTEC

Pressing for an early conclusion of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in an opening remarks at the BIMSTEC summit Thursday in New Delhi called upon the member countries to provide a new “strategic thrust” to the cooperation to deal with the global issues such as financial crisis, energy & food security, and climate change.

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This is the second daylong Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) summit being held in New Delhi under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The first summit was held four years ago in 2004 in Thailand.

Pointing out the next target in the area of investment and services after trade, Singh said, “Considerable progress has been made in the negotiations on the BIMSTEC Free Trade Agreement for trade in goods. The early conclusion of this agreement would be a shining symbol of our cooperation.”

In order to register remarkable progress in the area of trade and economic cooperation, the veteran economist said, “We together need to do something concrete…something bigger.”

Drawing attention towards the pros and cons of globalisation and economic interdependence, Dr. Singh said, “On the one hand, while it provides us opportunity for growth and prosperity, on the other hand, it has some drawbacks as shown today in terms of recent global economic and financial crisis.”

He perhaps wanted to say that Asian countries would not be remained immune from the international financial meltdown; so to take the steps in advance to deal with it effectively.

He also appealed to the BIMSTEC countries to battle together the new trans-national challenges that have emerged before us in terms of climate change, energy and food security, threatening our development efforts.

Delineating some steps need to be taken to strengthen BIMSTEC, Dr. Singh said: “We should undertake a comprehensive review of our activities and prepare a blue print for future activities that is focused on a limited number of issues of areas of common priority.”

In nutshell, he said, BIMSTEC must force the pace of implementation of our projects and ideas.